Zechariah 9.9-12, Matthew 11.16-19,25-30
The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday 5th July 2020 - Eldroth and online
'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.' Such gracious words tell us so much about the nature of the God who loves us, and how he lovingly invites us to be restored in him.
This is not a God who makes hard demands on people - contrary to what we may have been told; this is a God who wants to unburden us.
This is not a God who controls us by keeping us busy - contrary to what we might have been led to believe; this is a God who wants us to find rest for our souls.
This is not a heavyweight God who imposes on us - this is a God who is gentle and humble in heart. His yoke is easy; his burden is light.
So if we are carrying heavy burdens, those burdens are coming from somewhere else; God invites us to come to him to find rest.
Whatever burdens you - whether failing health, or worries about what the future might hold; whether financial worries or fears of loss or loneliness; whether you’re troubled by aspects of yourself which you don't like, habits you can't break, unhealthy obsessions… or whether it is others who trouble you - in a world which feels at present so insecure, so ill-at-ease, so conflicted… 'Come to me,’ he says, ‘and I will give you rest.'
Or whatever wearies you - the monotony of days in isolation, the grind of a tiring working pattern, keeping up appearances to please others, to do things just to fit in with them, that sense of not being ‘true to ourself’… 'Come to me,’ he says, ‘and I will give you rest.'
At times today it may feel like you can’t do right for doing wrong. As a people for some weeks now we have been asked to carry the burden of this damned coronavirus on our own shoulders. We are commanded to ‘Control The Virus’ - as if we had the power - and abandoned to make our own choices as to what that means in practice.
And so you are burdened, for if you stay indoors aren’t you failing to help get the economy moving again; but if you go out aren’t you risking infection and putting extra strain on our health services? If you meet with friends aren’t you putting them all at risk; but if you decline their invitation aren’t you being antisocial? What a bind we are in... what burdens we carry. How they weary us. In this, we are not alone.
'But to what will I compare this generation?' (asks Jesus in Matthew 11.) 'It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn." For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon"; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”'
They couldn’t do right for doing wrong, John the non-drinker, and Jesus the drinker - the crowd condemned them both: they couldn't fulfil the people's expectations because the people's expectations shifted according to their mood and to suit their interests at the time.
Can you sense how our present generation also sounds like children in the marketplace calling to one another? People may say to us - ‘You shouldn't be opening the church, it invites the vulnerable to risk their health’; and then others may say - ‘You can't keep that old church closed, it's a vital part of our village, it holds our history, it should be open to us all’.
And we too, can be like children in the marketplace calling to one another. We may say - ‘Let the young people come into the village, we long for more young families, let’s create affordable housing’; and when they come we may tell them, ‘Keep the noise down, don't let those kids play ball games, you can’t park your car on this road’.
Just as we are burdened by people’s expectations so at times we burden others too. The good news is that Jesus wants to lift from us all those burdens, and in doing so, to give us the wisdom to live in such a way that we don’t burden others.
When we take the ‘light load’ which Jesus offers, then we discover ourselves to be involved in another set of relationships altogether: the completely loving, gracious, self-giving relationships between God the Father, Son and Spirit, which he wants us to share in. Jesus wants to reveal God to us, so that we can enjoy receiving and giving out our share of his gentle, humble, liberating love.
Now please understand that I'm not saying that we should sideline or neglect our other, human relationships for the sake of our relationship with God, that we should be so heavenly-minded that we're no earthly use; far from it. But I am suggesting that if we place the greatest importance on how God thinks of us, if our focus is in living in response to his love for us, then we will become so liberated in our hearts that all of our other relationships will be liberated too.
Come to me... take my yoke.... learn from me... Jesus says.
You can do that, quite simply, in prayer. However you choose to pray. Whether you pray by pouring out in great detail all the concerns you have, unburdening yourself to him; whether you pray by removing yourself from the business of the day to be quiet, and in that silence to allow God to speak to you his words of comfort, healing, peace; whether you pray by contemplating scripture, asking God to direct you to help you see your life in God through the stories or words of guidance you find there; whether you pray by watching the birds in flight, or by taking comfort, strength, inspiration from the prayers of others which you can read, digest, and use for yourself.
Let us practice meeting God in Jesus, where we are. Let us unburden ourselves to him there. And let us learn from the humble, gentle, teacher how to help release others from their burdens, how to help and encourage others to find rest for their souls in God.
Let us pray for the fragile ecology of the heart and the mind. Let us be careful: with ourselves and with others. [2]
Notes
[1] Based on my previous sermons Come, all you weary and burdened, in the Crimewatch generation, Somerset, 2017 and Come to me all you weary and burdened, Devon, 2011.
[2] Lines from Michael Leunig, ‘Let us pray for the fragile ecology of the heart and the mind’, in A Common Prayer. For many years Leunig’s wondrous prayers and pictures have been a comfort, strength, inspiration to me.
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